


cauldron

by adamantine



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, F/F, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 02:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7599736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adamantine/pseuds/adamantine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yet another SASO fill. Basically just a silly a thing where Haru and Rin are both witches (also both girls).</p>
            </blockquote>





	cauldron

The grandfather clock struck twelve. Haruka added a drop of green liquid into her cauldron. A cloud of red smoke poofed into existence. She drew back from the cauldron, coughing.

“Damn it.” She’d messed up, _again_.

Haruka sighed and pulled off her safety googles.

Most witches thought potion making was all about the ingredients. The prettiest flower, the purest tear drop, the strongest scale. But Haruka knew better. A potion’s quality had nothing to do with the quality of its ingredients. Haruka had once used a marshmallow four-leafed clover instead of an actual four-leafed clover with any issues.

No, the real trick to potion making was the potion maker’s state of mind, their emotions, while they brewed a potion. That was something Haruka never had a problem with before. She excelled at controlling her emotions, bringing only the ones she needed to the surface as she brewed a potion. At least, she _used_ to excel at these things.

The cauldron’s surface calmed down. The last of the smoke cleared away. Haruka took the cauldron and poured it down the sink. Another useless love potion.

Maybe she would have felt less bitter if she could at least sell the damn potions, but she couldn’t, not without causing more trouble than the money was worth. The potion didn’t do anything malicious — it wasn’t the kind of potion that made you fall in love, it was a potion that made you feel like you _were_ in love. For a few hours you would feel hopelessly and deliriously in love, not with anything or anyone in particular. It seemed harmless enough, but after selling a few vials of the stuff Haruka learned the hard way people did very stupid things when they were in love.

Every customer that bought the potion had come back the next day to complain. One man spent an afternoon skipping around the park instead of going to work. Another had bought 200 bouquets of roses for himself. A woman yelled at her because she’d adopted twenty-seven cats while on the potion even though she was allergic to them. Haruka had started getting rid of the love potion after that incident. She had no interest in trying to find homes for twenty-seven cats ever again.

Haruka rinsed out the cauldron and sighed. She simply wanted to make a calming drought, one she’d brewed hundreds of times before without issue. But for the life of her, she couldn’t keep her mind focused or her emotions calm. It was like this with every potion she’d tried brewing lately. No matter how hard she tried to hold onto the right emotions her own real emotions would start to slip through.

She kicked the sink in frustration. This was all Rin’s fault. The stupidest things would remind her of Rin and once she thought of Rin it was over. Her concentration was shot, her emotions running wild.

Stupid Rin and her perfect body, her cheshire grin when she caught Haruka staring at her cleavage. She’d pop into Haruka’s shop to “chat” almost every day, often getting much too close, invading Haruka’s personal space, resting her arm on Haruka’s shoulder, leaning in front of her so that Haruka would get a whiff of her coconut conditioner — just all-around distracting her from getting anything done. She was trying to put Haruka out of business, that’s what she was doing. That way Rin’s rival potion shop would no longer have any competition.

Well, Haruka wasn’t going to allow that to happen. She’d inherited the shop from her grandmother. She wasn’t going to be defeated by the new witch in town.

Haruka grabbed her soap and sponge and started cleaning out her cauldron, already fired up to try again. Surely this time she'd be able to keep from thinking of Rin long enough.


End file.
